Muzzleloading goes modern

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, December 8, 2004

Muzzleloader deer hunting has come a long way. And if that bothers some blackpowder fans, it delights a still-growing crowd of muzzleloading fans clutching more dependable, more powerful firearms.

Flintlock muzzleloaders struck steel with a flint to produce a spark, carried by flash powder into the chamber. Too often, the flame never made it, and the shooter launched not a projectile but a "flash in the pan."

Muzzleloader deer hunting has come a long way. And if that bothers some blackpowder fans, it delights a still-growing crowd of muzzleloading fans clutching more dependable, more powerful firearms.

Flintlock muzzleloaders struck steel with a flint to produce a spark, carried by flash powder into the chamber. Too often, the flame never made it, and the shooter launched not a projectile but a "flash in the pan."

On percussion rifles, a hammer struck a percussion primer cap, which ignited the gunpowder. Traditionally, the cap was mounted on a nipple off to the side of the barrel.

The upshot is that you can buy a muzzleloader for less than a hundred dollars. Add $50 for a kit of all you need, $50 more for a scope if you like. A few hours on a range with the manual, and you're ready for the woods.

Like modern fly lines, compound bows, monofilament fishing line and Gore-Tex membranes, inline muzzleloaders are a gift of technology and tinkerers.

They've made the December season an Everyman pursuit. Now muzzleloading rifles, like bows, are on racks at mass merchants and big sporting goods stores. (The area's only specialized muzzleloading shop, by the way, closed last year after decades of Midland-area trade.)

I took my cheap sidelock to a large sporting goods store for a repair estimate, and the clerk talked me out of it. It would cost $50 or more to get it fixed, he said, pointing to a pallet stacked high with hundred-dollar inlines.

My firearm was as unfixable, as disposable, as a radio or small TV.

Not all of them, of course.

Remington returned to building muzzleloaders, and its fine Model 700 Muzzleloader is built to mimic the look and feel of its classic Model 700 centerfire rifle.

"In the end," says the Remington website, "aside from the loading procedure, handling (on its inline rifles) isn't much different - or any less safe - than toting your favorite bolt action into the woods."

And that galls some fans of more traditional muzzleloaders. They say seasons were established for people who'd trade lower odds for a time of their own. Inlines, they maintain, are simply single-shot modern rifles.

The muzzleloader season was conceived as a bucks-only, bonus opportunity for primitive arms enthusiasts. Now it's an important deer-reduction tool for deer managers.

It's a season-stretcher for hunters focused on pursuing deer, as well as a celebration for those committed to the charms of primitive firearms.

For now, at least, we have a big enough woods and large enough deer herd for both.

Michigan muzzleloader guidelines

In Michigan, December-season muzzleloaders can use rifle, shotgun or handgun loaded with black powder or commercial black powder substitute.

Michigan does not restrict ignition types. We're allowed telescopic sights, too, unlike some other states. And the DNR has even dropped its minimum caliber restriction.

The Upper Peninsula muzzleloader season began December 3 and runs through Sunday this year. The Lower Peninsula season is Friday through December 19.

Hunters must have an unused firearm or combination deer license, and only bucks are legal unless the hunter has an unfilled deer antlerless license.

Muzzleloaders are legal and popular in southern Lower Michigan during the regular November season, too, when hunters are otherwise restricted to shotguns or modern handguns of .35-caliber or larger.

Consult the hunting rule booklet available at license dealers for more information, or visit the DNR website at www.michigan.gov/dnr.